God's Blood Covenant - Part 3 - Understanding The Mosaic Covenant And Its Echo In Christ

Thunder shakes the mountain, the people promise everything, and a nation steps under a covenant that will shape its worship, law, and daily life. We walk through the Mosaic covenant with clear eyes: why God tied Israel’s blessings to obedience, how the law structured justice and mercy, and where those rituals and sacrifices pointed all along. From the Ten Commandments to civil courts, hygiene rules, and festivals, the blueprint for a holy society emerges—not as punishment, but as protection and a witness among violent neighbors.

We unpack the drama at Sinai and the sobering moment when Israel turned to a golden calf, revealing the heart of the problem the law could diagnose but never cure. The sacrificial system becomes a living parable of substitution, mediation, and cleansing, preparing us to recognize Jesus as the perfect high priest and the perfect sacrifice. The scene widens to two mountains—Gerizim and Ebal—where blessings and curses are declared with unforgettable clarity. The blessings envision flourishing in every direction; the curses catalog the collapse that follows idolatry and injustice. Still, a thread of mercy runs through it: return, and restoration is possible.

This conversation connects the dots from Abraham’s promise to Christ’s fulfillment, showing how the law served as a tutor that led us to grace. We reflect on identity, promise, and the warning and hope embedded in Deuteronomy’s call to choose life. If you’re curious about how ancient covenants illuminate today’s faith, justice, and community, you’ll find a grounded, scripture-rich guide here. Listen, share with a friend who loves biblical history and theology, and if this helped you, subscribe and leave a review so others can find the show.

Transcript

Series Context And Abrahamic Roots

Lynne 0:00

You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights biblical strategies for moving through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynne is the founder and president of Lynne Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Grieves, and Finding God in Death and Life, a Passage Through Grief. Now, here's Lynne. Hello, and welcome to part three in our series entitled God's Blood Covenant. Last week we learned that the covenants God made with Abraham were based on three things. Abraham's relationship with God, his faith to believe what he was told, and God's promise to fulfill his word. Approximately 430 years after the Abrahamic covenant, God established yet another covenant with Israel under Moses. This was known as the Mosaic Covenant. This covenant constituted Israel as God's chosen people through the giving of the law. This conditional covenant differed fundamentally from the unilateral Abrahamic covenant. Whereas Abraham's covenant depended entirely upon God's faithfulness and promised blessing through faith, the Mosaic covenant tied Israel's blessings to Israel's obedience to works. This material difference has far-reaching implications that extend to the present day and affect the nation of Israel, the church, and the world at large. As we study the Mosaic covenant, we will see that it contained the three elements of covenant, namely terms, blood, and blessings, and curses. First, the terms were set. The story continues as the Israelites, led by Moses, left Egypt and traveled to the promised land. During the forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness, God forged several covenants with his people. The terms and pledges, blessings and curses are spelled out in chapters nineteen through twenty four of Exodus, and continue through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The terms were extensive, exhaustive, and impossible to completely obey. This covenant was divided into three parts, the Ten Commandments, which was the moral law, civil law, which governed daily and social situations, and ceremonial law, which had to do with offerings and sacrifices. When the Israelites kept the law, it resulted in amazing blessings, including spiritual, financial, national, and personal. These blessings echoed the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant and remained as long as Israel stayed faithful. Next came the cutting of the covenant. It happened in this manner. Three months after the Exodus, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, where the covenant was unveiled. We pick up the story in Exodus nineteen verses one through six. On the first day of the third month, after the Israelites left Egypt, on that very day, they came to the desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob, and what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and the holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, We will do everything the Lord has said. Notice they rashly promised to do everything before they fully understood what the everything entailed. So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord, and here then were the beginnings of the agreement to the terms. Notice the if then provisos in the language. In both Exodus nineteen and twenty, God descended on Mount Sinai with displays of power, fire, lightning, thunder, and trumpet blasts, which display frightened the people out of their wits. So much so that verse eight reads, When the people saw the thunder and lightning, and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, Speak to us yourself, and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us, or we will die. So Moses served as the go-between, ascending the mountain, meeting with God, and revealing to Israel the Ten Commandments and a multitude of additional laws. As mentioned before, there were so many. They filled three more books in addition to Exodus. Now, these rules were not punishment. In fact, God instituted them for Israel's good. They reflected God's compassion and his earnest concern for the people's well being. The laws essentially set standards for proper societal and moral conduct. There were rules for establishing courts of law and judges, including laws of property rights and inheritance and criminal law, court and judicial procedures, ethical business practices, monetary policy, including taxes and tithes, guidelines for the treatment of individuals within the community, including slaves, marriage and family regulations, and guidelines for sexual mores. The rules included practical procedures for hygiene, dealing with diseases, food preparation, dietary laws, clothing guidelines, and agricultural and animal husbandry. They established rules of war, explained how to deal with neighboring tribes, and taught the importance of vows. The law demanded that Israel honor the Sabbath and all the festivals that memorialized Yahweh's many deliverances. They set rules to uphold their relationship with God by addressing sin, and to that end provided for a priesthood and temple rules for worship and sacrifice. In these primitive times, guidelines were an exception. Ezrael was surrounded by nations and tribes with no guardrails regarding civil and moral behavior, who indulged without restraint in every manner of ritual and practice, both dangerous and deadly. These included child sacrifice, cannibalism, orgies, murder, prostitution, and sorcery. Israel was to represent how a civilized culture should behave. Yahweh gave them strict instructions not to mingle with or marry the people they came into contact with to prevent them from adopting those pagan practices. As a final step, the covenant was ratified with a blood sacrifice. The Book of the Covenant was read to the entire assembled congregation, and then an elaborate sacrificial ritual was set up, again involving the shedding of blood. Exodus twenty four, four through eight describes this. Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people. They responded, We will do everything the Lord has said, we will obey. Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Now not to get ahead of ourselves, but it's important to point out that this ritual signaled the beginning of the old covenant, and it also presages Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, sealed in his own blood that ushered in the new covenant. So to continue, afterwards Moses went to the mountain and was in the presence of God for forty days. In his absence, it wasn't long, before Israel decided to forsake the covenant, build an idol, and worship it. So much for their promise to Yahweh. The Mosaic covenant named Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God's intention was for Israel to be a light to the dark world around them. The term set them apart completely, as a nation who worship the one true God. But the sacrificial systems did not take away sins. They simply covered Israel's sins. As mentioned, they served as foreshadow the bearing of sins by Jesus, our perfect high priest. The system was a works-oriented covenant that did not have faith as its basis. The law's purpose was to reveal sin's character, curb evil, and ultimately point to Christ. Paul alludes to this in Galatians three twenty-four. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The terms of the law were completely unfulfillable. Mankind's works and best intentions can never save us. The ceremonial system, the sacrificial regulations in particular, prefigured the tenets of the gospel. Christ's substitutionary atonement through his blood sacrifice, his mediation as our high priest, and our purification from sin. Just as an aside, we've thrown out many terms in this discussion that may seem unfamiliar and a bit overwhelming, words such as substitutionary, atonement, mediation, high priest. As we progress through the series, these terms will come into focus as we study their implications and their relevance to our current experience. A second point is worth noting. God made this covenant with the Israelites, the Hebrews. The notion of Jewishness was nonexistent at the time. The error is to conflate the two. Joshua 21: verses 43 and 45 demonstrate that God made good on his promise to Abraham. "So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled." Now the Israelites would ultimately lose the land when they abandoned the covenant. But God had made good on his promise already. Additionally, God promised that through Abraham, all nations of the world, not just Israel, would be blessed. This again prophesied the coming of Christ. In fact, all the Old Testament figures, from kings to prophets to judges, all portray some aspect or foreshadowing of the coming Messiah. The mystery revealed through the ages that the Apostle Paul speaks of in Colossians one, twenty-six and twenty-seven. As the book of Hebrews, chapter eight, verse six points out, "Christ fulfilled the law when he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice, establishing a better covenant on better promises." Thankfully, believers are no longer under the law, but under grace. According to Romans six: fourteen, we are freed permanently from the law's condemnation and curse. Galatians three: thirteen reads, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. According to that which is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree, that the blessings of Abraham would come upon the Gentiles." In fact, modern Judaism has little to do with the Hebrew Scriptures. Christianity, however, is the continuation of the Hebrew Scriptures through their fulfillment in the Messiah. Not the continuation of Judaism. And as mentioned before, Jewishness is a far newer concept that emerged years after the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants were put into place. But more about that later. Finally, after the cutting of the covenant came pronouncements of the blessings and curses. A curious scene, reminiscent of the Stanley Livingston account, took place in chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven in the book of Deuteronomy. Recall the curses that were pronounced by the priest and the translator that would descend on the parties who dared to violate the covenant? We have a similar situation here. In Deuteronomy chapter twenty seven: twelve, the scene is set. "When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issach, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebel to pronounce curses Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Nephthali." So here we have an unusual scenario. A group of men standing on opposite mountains, shouting curses and blessings to each party across the divide within earshot of the people. Verse 14 takes up the refrain. "The Levite shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice, Cursed is everyone who makes an idol, a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands, and sets it up in secret. Then all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father and mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor's boundary stone. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road. Then all the people shall say, Amen." This ritual pronouncement of curses continues all the way to verse 26. And then in chapter 28 came the pronouncements of the blessings. Were all of these delivered in the same way? Did they shout these also from the mountains? Who knows? That would amount to a lot of shouting. But verse 1 says, "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands, I give you today. All the nations on earth, all these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God." The list of blessings stated in verses three through thirteen, beginning with the promise that Israel would be blessed coming and going, are magnanimous and extensive. They include fertility, abundance, safety, victory, everything material they could need or wish for, but with the proviso that they remain obedient to Yahweh. Next the curses for disobedience were spoken. They were fearsome and so considerable it took fifty three verses to list them all. Death and destruction, poverty, mayhem, wasting diseases, fever, inflammation, scorching heat and drought, blight and mildew, boils, tumors, festering sores, incurable long-lasting diseases, hunger, thirst, blindness, madness, rape, pillage and captivity, children orphaned or taken away, famine, terror, anxiety, siege, and as the final humiliation, they would be sent back to Egypt on ships and quote, "there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you." Imagine listening to this ghastly recitation of horrors. They seem more like a distillation of human suffering throughout the ages, and less like imprecations limited exclusively to one nation. Moses takes up the refrain in chapter 29, continuing to impress upon the people the gravity of the covenant, and the importance of following the terms. If Israel abandoned the covenant, the result would be as stated in verse 23. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These curses were a stern warning to obey the terms of the covenant and not worship idols. God would spare his people the horror of falling into the hands of evil's devilish torment through their own poor choices. Although the consequences for turning away from God were severe, in chapter 30, Moses speaks of God in his compassion restoring Israel's fortune if they turn back to God after straying. He makes clear that the consequences are purely the result of choice. "This day I call the heavens and earth as witnesses against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live, that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Our loving Heavenly Father offers to all of us the gift of freedom of choice. He also offered his son for us. The plan of salvation is as easy as A B C. A Admit that we're all sinners. B believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins and then rose again. C. Confess him as Lord of our lives. Would you like to pray with me to receive this free gift of salvation? Repeat after me and mean it in your heart. Heavenly Father, I believe you sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for my sins. I believe he rose on the third day. Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart, make me brand new, and guide my life from this day forward. In your precious name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, contact us. Lynnelittle Ministries @ gmail.com. God's blessing on you and your loved ones. Thank you so much for listening. Lynnelittle Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace, and restoration. For books, resources, or to make a tax deductible donation, go to lynnelittle.org.